Leadership Lessons From History

Several years ago in a meeting, we were asked to share the name of the best leadership book we’d read in the past year. My colleagues suggested books by Maxwell, Gladwell and Collins, yet my mind went directly to the historical account of General George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River in 1776, depicted in “To Try Men’s Souls” by Newt Gingrich.

You may remember the story from high school history class. In December 1776 during the Revolutionary War, the Continental Army was demoralized and on the run. Christmas night, while camped along the Delaware River, Washington realized that their only chance to win – or even to survive – was to attack the British at Trenton.

It wasn’t evident at the time of course, but historians now consider the events of that evening and the next morning as the turning point of the Revolutionary War. As we study Washington’s decision-making during these extraordinary circumstances, five leadership lessons emerge.

1. Heroes Exist in the Unlikeliest of Places

Henry Knox served as Washington’s chief artillery officer, and before the war, Knox managed a bookstore.

According the Washington, Knox’s efforts made the attack on Trenton possible. As a devastating blizzard engulfed the area late on Christmas night, the river seemed impassable. Knox coordinated efforts to load the army’s few remaining artillery pieces onto the creaky flatboats and to navigate the ice-choked river. Once across, it was his leadership that allowed men to transport heavy machinery up and down the icy hills in the midst of an historic blizzard.

Washington later said he was stunned by Knox’s confidence and impressed by the routine, matter-of-fact way Knox explained his plan. He had horses drag artillery pieces up frozen hills in the middle of a snowstorm, in the dark, using malnourished and barefoot soldiers, yet Knox made it seem like an ordinary, routine event.

Like eagles, leaders don’t flock together. You most often find them one at a time, and sometimes a bookseller helps you win a war.

2. Hold Steady in the Face of the “But Sirs”

Once Washington made his decision to cross the Delaware and attack, he never wavered. As soon as the order was disseminated through the ranks, leaders were hit with a barrage of “but sirs.”

• “But sir, the river is filled with ice.”
• “But sir, these boats weren’t designed to transport cannons.”
• “But sir, my men haven’t eaten in three days, they won’t survive the march.”
• “But sir, the British are well-rested and well-fed, what chance do we have in battle?”

But sir, but sir, but sir. As a leader, how often do you deal with resistance to a tough decision? Washington responded by increasing the level of communication so that everyone had better understanding of his decisions, as illustrated in this brief aside to his officers:

“If we do not win soon, there will be no army left. When there is no army left, the rebellion will be over. When the rebellion is over, we will all be hung. Therefore we have little to lose.”

3. Frequently Communicating Vision is a Necessity

Washington didn’t say it just once, he repeated himself over and over, up and down the line of soldiers. The vision: Cross the river, move the artillery and cross Jacob’s Creek. In twelve hours.

Did everyone agree with his plan? Hardly. Did they execute the mission? Definitely.

4. Be Visible

A Continental soldier’s diary recounts that for every mile he covered, General Washington probably covered twelve. Riding back and forth, checking on the front line, then crossing the creek to check on the men at the back of the line, then back to the front again. The soldiers knew their leader was invested and that he was fighting right by their side.

A good rule-of-thumb for leaders: the tougher the mission, the higher the visibility.

5. Leaders Aren’t Called to Do Their Best

Washington knew this leadership secret better than anyone. He knew that most of his men’s enlistments expired in a week and that he was outmanned and outgunned. He knew that their only chance of survival was to attack and win at Trenton. Everything else was irrelevant.

It didn’t matter that the river was filled with ice, or that half his men had no shoes and hadn’t eaten in days. The boat boarding passcode that night was “Victory or Death.” This is what Washington believed and it was how he led his army. He knew that as leaders, we are not called to do our best – we are called to do what is required.

Washington’s army went on to win the battle at Trenton, and to win again at Princeton. The momentum of those wins turned the war in their favor, eventually leading to American independence fifteen years later. And I believe the momentum truly began with the perseverance of one man, directing his forces to victory through a blinding snowstorm.

Nearly two hundred fifty years later, General Washington’s leadership lessons are as valuable today as they were that snowy night on the banks of the Delaware River.

Author Bio: As director of tax at Paycom, Jim Quillen is responsible for ensuring payments and returns are filed timely and accurately, and for eliminating tax issues with the potential to negatively impact clients. Quillen, a CPA by training, has worked in many fields during his career, including finance, auditing, recruiting, sales, business development and software implementation. Prior to his current role, Quillen has served Paycom as the director of business intelligence, director of new client implementation and director of recruiting.

What the Employee Experience Is … and Is Not

August 14, 2017

HR departments and C-suites nationwide are abuzz with talk of the “employee experience,” often abbreviated as “EX.” It is the sum of all interactions, good or bad, that an employee has during his or her term of employment with a company.

As defined by author and futurist Jacob Morgan in his new book on the topic, The Employee Experience Advantage, those EX interactions can be divided among three environments that surround the worker:

technology

workspace

culture

The EX concept posits that all three bear equal importance, and that focusing on their long-term design results in an engaged workforce. In turn, productive and happy workers yield loyal customers.

In addition, Morgan’s research shows that companies that invest in the EX reap rewards over companies that do not, to the tune of:

four times higher profits

three times higher revenue per employee

40% lower turnover

Sounds like to build a positive employee experience all you have to do is create a utopia of benefits and perks, right?

Wrong.

What the EX Isn’t

Remember, experts define the EX as a totality of experiences that an employee has at his or her place of work, from Day 1 to either resignation, termination or retirement. Providing a positive employee experience doesn’t require satisfying employees’ every whim along the way, or ensuring that every interaction leaves employees feeling euphoric. It just means that the positives in the sum have to outweigh the negatives; you’re simply aiming to become a place where people want to work and want to come to work. After all, everyone has his or her share of negatives while on the clock, and it is unrealistic to think any office to be all unicorns and lollipops, no matter how many nap pods may be on the premises.

The Millennial Factor

With millennials projected to make up at least 50% of the workforce by 2020, employers face a tech-dependent majority that not only is comfortable with using technology in the workplace, but expects to use it (per research conducted by Adobe). Therefore, millennials are primed to be more open to embracing an EX, which relies upon technology as one of its three legs of support.

One way to support this desire for technology companywide is through implementation of an employee self-service platform. Whereas earlier generations may be used to paper-based processes — from tracking hours worked to completing benefits forms — and, therefore, may be hesitant or resistant toward cloud-based, self-service software that accomplishes the same tasks, millennials overwhelming prefer to forego the manual in favor of the technical.

In a recent millennial survey by Price Waterhouse Cooper, 60% of the millennials surveyed said that an employer’s investment into workplace technology was important when considering a job. Self-service software fits in to that category, reducing the burden placed on HR while empowering these young talented workers to take charge of entering and managing their own information.​

Author Bio: As Paycom’s Creative Services Manager, Rod Lott brings more than two decades of experience in marketing, advertising, branding and journalism. A published author and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, he has worked with such brands as Blue Cross Blue Shield, Sonic Drive-In and OU.

3 Ways to Immediately Improve Employee Engagement

August 10, 2017

For some employers, having happy employees is a want-to, not a have-to – it isn’t a priority. Making payroll, launching new campaigns and pleasing shareholders seems a more necessary than trying to create engaged, fulfilled employees. But happy, engaged employees are far more important to the success of a company than one might think.

A Gallup study reported a measurable link between employee engagement and eight common metrics used to measure a business’ success:

Customer Ratings

Profitability

Productivity

Turnover

Safety

Theft Prevention

Attendance

Quality of the final product

In fact, companies with engaged employees show 22 % higher profitability and 147 % higher earnings per share than companies without them.

Let’s agree that happy employees are an integral part of your company’s success — so how do we cultivate them?

How to Engage Your Team

While creating an engaged team won’t happen overnight, here are three ways to begin:

1.Equip your employees

Equip your team with tools like engagement surveys to find and improve weak points. Use goal-setting tools that empower employees to reach new heights in their careers.

2. Educate your employees

People love to learn, so host a brown-bag lunch once a week and offer industry-related classes in the office. Give them tools like the Myers-Briggs personality assessment so they can learn how they work best and how to work better with others. Teach corporate culture with high-quality online learning tools that employees can work through at their own pace.

3. Empower your employees

The days of people being cogs in a machine are over—happy, creative individuals make your business better. According to Seth Godin’s Linchpin, today’s employees crave responsibility, opportunity and the authority to make decisions. Create a culture that tells every employee he or she matters. Offer chances for everyone to pitch their big ideas. Give employees control over their own career decisions with employee self-service tools.

Look at your employees as individuals — individuals who want to learn, share their talents, know they’re making a difference and be part of a business they believe in. When your employees are happy, you, your investors and your customers will be, too.

Author Bio: Braeden Fair produces webinars and podcasts for Paycom, in addition to writing content for the company’s blog and its employee culture magazine, Paycom Pulse. A graduate of Oklahoma Christian University, he managed social media for the college’s student life division and worked in the broadcasting departments of the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Dallas-based sports-talk radio station The Ticket.

4 Truths About the Ideal Millennial Workplace

August 8, 2017

In today’s increasingly technology-heavy workplace, the millennial workforce continues to grow and thrive.

According to the Pew Research Center, the millennial labor force surpassed Generation X as the largest in the workforce in 2015. In fact, Pricewaterhouse Coopers estimates that millennials will make up 50% of the workforce by 2020.

As they continue to grow and baby boomers increasingly retire, more millennials will assume management positions. In the recent two-part episode of Paycom’s HR Break Room podcast, guest Adam Smiley Poswolsky, author of The Quarter-Life Breakthrough, spoke about what businesses must do in order to make that transition as seamlessly as possible.

Here are four key takeaways from that conversation.

1. Purpose-driven workplaces draw millennials.

With 90% of millennials wanting to use their skills for good, they are demanding that companies provide purpose and meaning, so that their day-to-day work is not just an 8-to-5 job, but also something that defines them. They want to feel valued in their work and that their work is making a difference, so much so that half of them will take a pay cut to find work that matches their values!

In order to attract and retain top talent from this generation, creating a culture of purpose and meaning is essential to organizational success.

2. A transparent workplace is critical.

In order to meet the needs of today’s workforce, employers should strive to be clear about what working there is like. The most forward-thinking organizations realize that millennials are going to research company culture, whether through Glassdoor or the grapevine, so recruitment efforts should clearly communicate the benefits and mission. Training and technology are especially popular among millennials, who are seeking purpose-driven opportunities that offer the opportunity to leave an impact.

With so many young people in the workforce, the workplace has become an extension of the classroom. Unlike baby boomers and earlier generations, millennials have to do more than to be good at just one thing and ride that skill for the next 40 years, thanks to the nature of technology and the state of the economy. In order to retain the most ambitious employees, you have to keep teaching them new desirable skills.

3. Millennials operate by a management style all their own.

A Global Workforce report states that 25% of millennials in the workforce will take on management positions. With the same report indicating that 3.6 million baby boomers will retire by the end of this year, it is essential for organizations nationwide to begin adjusting to the needs of the millennial management style.

Millennials are huge fans of collaboration and always looking for new ideas to get things done faster and more efficiently. They prefer co-leadership to more traditional hierarchical structures and are not as interested in doing things because “that’s how it’s always been done.” Even if not every idea is accepted, millennial managers like to give their talent room to try new things … and even room to fail.

This emerging style is going to prove especially important as the next generation of employees, Generation Z (born between 1994 and 2010), begin to enter the workforce. They value authenticity and want to work in an organization where their ideas are heard, regardless of job title. This interest in transparency and innovation makes them a more natural fit to be led by millennial managers.

4. Millennials and Generation Z embrace learning through technology.

Collaboration and transparency are easier to achieve through technology, a key building block to any successful employee experience. Today’s top talent find and apply jobs through the internet, and then learn more about prospective employers the same way. Once they set themselves on a career path, they have become accustomed to learning new skills through YouTube videos or listening to podcasts.

Both Millennials and Generation Z have grown up having instant messaging tools, video streams and high-speed internet connections at their fingertips at all times. To create a seamless and attractive employee experience, employers should ensure such tools be incorporated into the workplace, at every stage from onboarding to retirement. Companies that truly understand how to use such tech tools as online learning platforms and surveys will be able to create an organization that is transparent and collaborative, and a culture that is efficient and goal-driven.

Author Bio: Caleb is the host of The HR Break Room and a Webinar and Podcast Producer at Paycom. With more than 5 years of experience as a published online writer and content producer, Caleb has produced dozens of podcasts and videos for multiple industries both local and online. Caleb continues to assist organizations creatively communicate their ideas and messages through researched talks, blog posts and new media. Outside of work, Caleb enjoys running, discussing movies and trying new local restaurants.